WNBA Rumors | Hoops Rumors

NBA Considering Turning All-Star Game Into Tournament

November 15th, 2024 at 5:45pm CST by Rory Maher

The NBA is seriously considering turning the All-Star Game into a four-team tournament, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN.

The proposed changes would take effect starting with this season’s All-Star weekend, which will take place in San Francisco at the Chase Center, Golden State’s home arena, from Feb. 14-16.

Instead of the typical two teams with 12 players each, the 24 All-Stars would be separated into three teams of eight players apiece, Charania explains. The fourth team would be the winner of the Rising Stars competition. The tournament would feature two rounds, with the victors of round one (Team 1 vs. Team 2, Team 3 vs. Team 4) advancing to the final.

While the plans have not yet been finalized, all signs point to the league eventually implementing the changes, two sources tell Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link).

According to Charania, NBA officials discussed the proposed format on Friday with the Competition Committee, which consists of team governors, executives, coaches, players and union personnel. The league has been discussing format changes with team officials and players for several months, and the four-team tournament quickly became the most popular plan.

Commissioner Adam Silver stated a couple weeks ago that the league was looking for a new All-Star format after last season’s contest in Indianapolis was universally panned for its lack of defense and abundance of long three-point shots. The East defeated the West 211-186 in a listless affair despite a plea from league executive Joe Dumars to take the game seriously and put forth a better effort.

“We’re looking at other formats,” Silver said. “I think there’s no doubt that the players were disappointed as well in last year’s All-Star Game. We all want to do a better job providing competition and entertainment for our fans.”

As Reynolds writes in a full story, the new format is similar to what has been used for the Rising Stars event in recent years. That four-team tournament features a target score for both the semifinal and final.

What’s less clear is how the All-Star voting process would work, according to Reynolds, who notes that at least one more coach would likely be needed as well.

Charania hears the most popular All-Star event from last season, the first-ever NBA vs. WNBA three-point shootout between Warriors guard Stephen Curry and New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, will likely return in February, though it may be tweaked to include more players. Sources tell Charania that Mavericks wing Klay Thompson and Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark are among the candidates to join Curry and Ionescu.

NBA Assistants Drawing Interest From WNBA Teams Seeking Head Coaches

November 9th, 2024 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Several WNBA teams with head coaching openings are eyeing assistants on NBA clubs as potential candidates, according to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report (video link).

While Fischer didn’t identity any specific assistant coaches who are drawing interest from WNBA teams, he suggested it wouldn’t be a surprise to see some make the leap ahead of next season.

“There is a wave right now of WNBA teams looking to keep bringing NBA coaching talent from the league into the W,” Fischer said. “That is what’s happening all across these searches right now. … In the last four or five years (since) I’ve been shifting more into this intel space, insider world, I’ve never heard more people talking more about the intriguing opportunity for NBA assistant coaches to join a WNBA franchise as a head coach right now.”

The Los Angeles Sparks, Atlanta Dream, Washington Mystics, Dallas Wings, and Connecticut Sun all currently have head coaching vacancies. Expansion teams in Toronto and Portland will also have to hire coaches before they begin play in 2026. According to Fischer, the Sparks, Dream, and Mystics have all hired search firms to help them identify top candidates.

The salaries for WNBA head coaches are believed to be in the $500K-$1MM range, sources tell Fischer, which is part of the appeal of the jobs. While those figures pale in comparison to top NBA head coaching salaries, they compare favorably to what a lot of NBA assistants are earning. According to Fischer, many front-of-bench NBA assistant coaches have salaries in the neighborhood of $200-300K.

Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon, who was hired ahead of the 2022 season, and Nate Tibbetts of the Phoenix Mercury, hired prior to 2024, are among the current WNBA head coaches who spent years as NBA assistants and were plucked directly off NBA staffs. Hammon became the highest-paid coach in WNBA history when she was hired and Tibbetts reportedly surpassed her two years later.

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NBA Searching For New All-Star Game Format

November 3rd, 2024 at 9:58am CST by Arthur Hill

The NBA is considering another format change for this season’s All-Star Game, writes Joe Vardon of The Athletic. At a news conference prior to Saturday’s game in Mexico City, commissioner Adam Silver told reporters that Warriors star Stephen Curry has been involved in discussions about the Feb. 16 showcase in San Francisco.

“We’ve had direct conversations with Steph Curry — it’s a home game for him,” Silver said. “I know he’s very prideful and wants to make sure that the players put their best foot forward, so we’re looking at other formats. I think there’s no doubt that the players were disappointed as well in last year’s All-Star Game. We all want to do a better job providing competition and entertainment for our fans.”

Last season’s contest in Indianapolis was universally panned for its lack of defense and abundance of long three-point shots. The East defeated the West 211-186 in a listless affair despite a plea from league executive Joe Dumars to take the game seriously and put forth a better effort.

Creating a watchable All-Star Game has been an issue for the NBA for several years. In an effort to spark interest, the league switched its traditional East vs. West format in 2018 to have the top two vote-getters draft the players for each team. The “Elam Ending” was adopted in 2020 to give the game a different feel and ensure more exciting finishes.

However, none of the changes really resonated with the public, and the league returned to the East-West matchup last season with regular NBA rules.

“I think we all did what we thought we could, thinking we would particularly — in Indiana, sort of the heartland of basketball, somehow we would give it the college try, and we’d see a more competitive game,” Silver said. “I think, even if we could turn the clock back and get a bit more of a competitive game, even if it was more of a standard NBA game, I think fans would want more.”

The best-received part of last season’s All-Star Weekend was a Saturday night shooting contest between Curry and WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu. Although it hasn’t been formally announced, Silver said the plan is for them to have a rematch in San Francisco.

“If we can get more participation, not just for the physical activity but for all the values it represents,” that’s what the NBA wants, Silver said. “And I think showcasing those kinds of activities where you see men and women both competing in basketball at All-Star events should increasingly become a big part of it. And incidentally when you look at the interest in terms of viewership last year, one of the highlights was that Sabrina-Steph shootout, so we do want to do more of that.”

Silver also touched on the issue of expansion, saying the league continues to study the matter but nothing should be considered imminent, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. Seattle and Las Vegas are widely viewed as the front-runners for new teams, but Silver said Mexico City is among the locations under consideration.

“Nothing’s been set, and we haven’t even determined whether to expand yet,” he added. “My sense is that if we expanded, we’d do an even number, because then we might have to do some adjustments in the conferences. But I think it makes sense to have two conferences of 16 teams if we were to do it. There have been times in the past in the NBA when we had an odd number, so it’s possible. But I think we most likely, if we were to expand, would look to expand to two cities.”

And-Ones: Griffin, Amazon, Coaches, Tatum, WNBA, J. Porter

November 1st, 2024 at 9:55pm CST by Luke Adams

In the wake of his retirement as a player, six-time NBA All-Star Blake Griffin is said to be drawing significant interest not from NBA teams but from the league’s new television partners. According to Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, Griffin is in talks with Amazon Prime Video about a role as an analyst on their NBA coverage, with NBC and ESPN also believed to be interested in the former Clippers star.

Amazon and NBC aren’t currently airing NBA games, but will begin to do so in 2025/26, when the league’s new media rights deal takes effect, and will need to fill out their broadcast teams with both game and studio analysts. One source suggests to McCarthy that Griffin, who has an engaging personality and tried his hand at stand-up comedy during his playing days, is a candidate to become “the face” of Amazon’s NBA coverage.

Ryan Glasspiegel of The New York Post recently reported that veteran play-by-play broadcaster Ian Eagle, who calls NBA games for TNT and YES Network, is in serious talks to join Amazon for its NBA coverage. Mike Tirico and Ian’s son Noah Eagle are expected to be the top two play-by-play broadcasters for NBC’s NBA coverage, per Glasspiegel.

We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

In an interesting story for The Associated Press, Tim Reynolds takes a closer look at the average shelf life for an NBA head coach, noting that 15 of the league’s 30 coaches are entering either their first, second, or third year with their respective clubs. “That’s a sobering reality of this profession,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, the NBA’s second longest-tenured head coach. “It bums me out when I hear that stat because there are a lot of really talented coaches that if they had the same type of structure and continuity and belief from (their teams) … there could be a lot more coaches able to do what I’m able to do here (in Miami).”
Celtics star Jayson Tatum has informally agreed to join a bid to bring a WNBA franchise to his home city of St. Louis, reports Jacob Feldman of Sportico. Billionaires Richard Chaifetz and David Hoffman are heading up the prospective ownership group, according to Feldman, who notes that NBA players are permitted to own up to a 4% stake in a WNBA franchise.
A second gambler has admitted to his role in the Jontay Porter betting scheme, pleading guilty to wire fraud conspiracy, per an Associated Press report. The Pennsylvania man, Mahmud Mollah, will be sentenced on May 2 in federal court. A wide range of sentences are possible, from a no-jail punishment to 20 years in prison.

Wolves Notes: Lore, A-Rod, Randle, Finch, Conley, Edwards

October 23rd, 2024 at 8:35am CST by Luke Adams

With an arbitration hearing around the corner, prospective Timberwolves owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez have put $942MM into an escrow account, according to reports from Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico and Shams Charania of ESPN.

As Novy-Williams explains, Lore’s and Rodriguez’s goal is to make it clear that there are no liquidity issues and that they have cash on hand to complete their purchase of the Timberwolves and the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx if an arbitration panel rules in their favor. The group has also set aside about $300MM in working capital in the event that they’re given the go-ahead to assume control of the team, per Sportico.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst first reported last month on Lore’s and Rodriguez’s plan to put more than $900MM in escrow in advance of November’s arbitration hearing. The $942MM in escrow would be enough to fully buy out longtime Glen Taylor based on the terms of their agreement and would give the new owners 100% control of the two teams.

Lore and Rodriguez reached an agreement back in 2021 to buy the Timberwolves from Taylor for a valuation of $1.5 billion. The plan was for Lore and A-Rod to buy in gradually over three years, first purchasing a 20% stake in the team, then increasing that stake to 40% before assuming majority control earlier this year by bumping their stake to 80%. Taylor would have retained 20% of the franchise in that scenario.

However, Taylor announced in March that he’d be retaining his majority share of the Wolves due to the fact that the prospective owners missed their deadline for that third payment deadline (which would have taken them from 40% to 80%). Lore and Rodriguez disputed that claim, stating that they had submitted the necessary financial documentation and were awaiting league approval.

The arbitration hearing is set to begin on November 4. While Lore and Rodriguez are reportedly confident about their chances to prevail, it will likely take at least a few weeks for the panel to reach a decision.

Here’s more on the Wolves:

The bond between Julius Randle and Wolves head coach Chris Finch dating back to their time together with the Pelicans was one reason why Minnesota felt comfortable with the idea of acquiring Randle when they traded away Karl-Anthony Towns. Chris Hine of The Minneapolis Star Tribune and Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic take a closer look at that bond, sharing some interesting tidbits of information and considering how the Randle/Finch dynamic will help determine the Wolves’ ceiling in 2024/25. As Krawczynski notes, Randle advocated for Finch back in 2020 when the Knicks were seeking a new head coach. “He just opened up my game and I became a really versatile player,” Randle said of his time with Finch in New Orleans, per Hine. “I always say, playing there and even still to this point, that was the easiest my game ever felt playing under Finch.”
At age 37, Mike Conley doesn’t feel as if his game is declining at all, but the Wolves will still take some extra precautions with the veteran point guard this season, Hine writes for The Star Tribune. The goal will be to reduce Conley’s playing time a little after he averaged about 29 minutes per game last season. “We feel like we could keep his minutes in the mid-20s,” Finch said. “So kind of save some miles there.”
Speaking to Jamal Collier as part of an ESPN feature story, rising Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards expressed a desire to spend his entire NBA career in Minnesota. “If I can, I’m trying to be here for my whole career,” Edwards said. “I ain’t trying to go nowhere.”
In case you missed it, the Wolves and Rudy Gobert agreed to terms on a contract extension that will keep the four-time Defensive Player of the Year under contract through at least 2027.

And-Ones: Preseason, Abu Dhabi, China, Nakase

October 11th, 2024 at 11:19pm CST by Rory Maher

Unlike the regular season schedule, which is entirely controlled by the NBA, teams around the league dictate their own schedules for preseason, as Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic details.

“It is a fascinating, not well-known part of the NBA ecosystem,” said Warriors chief revenue officer John Beaven. “We’re pretty pleased that control has remained with us. We lean into it. I think there’s some teams that probably do it to check the box.”

One exception is when international teams — like the New Zealand Breakers — come to North America to participate in preseason. NBA teams actually pay those clubs, and the league gets involved to figure out broadcasting rights.

Here are some more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Speaking of the preseason, the NBA canceled Friday’s contest in Orlando between the Magic and Pelicans due to Hurricane Milton, the Magic announced (via Twitter). The game will not be rescheduled.
The Celtics and Nuggets were eager to travel to Abu Dhabi for the NBA’s third consecutive preseason in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, writes Tania Ganguli of The New York Times. The league says it’s focused on growing the sport globally, but it has drawn criticism from human rights groups for partnering with the UAE, China and Rwanda.
Commissioner Adam Silver believes the NBA will return to China in the future, according to Vorkunov. The league hasn’t played a game in the country since then-Rockets GM Daryl Morey sent out a tweet in support of freedom for Hong Kong in 2019. “I think we will bring back games to China at some point,” Silver said Thursday at a sports management conference at Columbia University. “We had a well-known incident there pre-pandemic with a tweet and China’s government took us off the air for a period of time. We accepted that. We stood by our values.”
Former Clippers assistant Natalie Nakase has been named head coach of the WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries, the team announced in a press release. Nakase has spent the past three season as the top assistant for the Las Vegas Aces. “Being named the head coach of the Golden State Valkyries is a lifelong dream come true,” said Nakase. “I am thankful to Joe Lacob, Ohemaa Nyanin and the Golden State front office for entrusting me with this responsibility. We are committed to building a winning culture of grit, hard work, and competitiveness. We will strive to improve, compete, and ultimately bring home a championship for our fans and this organization.”

Eastern Notes: Stewart, Pistons, Krauskopf, Heat Arena

September 23rd, 2024 at 6:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

With Mitchell Robinson now targeting December or January for his return to action from ankle surgery, the Knicks are seeking more depth in the middle, according to James Edwards III of The Athletic.

New York has spent a good portion of the last few months scouring the league for another frontcourt player, Edwards reports. One of those potential targets is the Pistons’ Isaiah Stewart.

Stewart’s four-year, $60MM extension kicks in this season and includes a club option. He’s expected to fight for playing time at both power forward and center for the revamped Pistons.

The Pistons received numerous inquiries on Stewart before he signed the extension. Injuries limited him to 46 games last season.

We have more from the Eastern Conference:

Speaking of the Pistons and Stewart, Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press (subscription required) examines three position battles heading into Detroit’s camp. That includes Stewart and Jalen Duren squaring off for the starting center job. There will also be camp battles for backup point minutes behind Cade Cunningham, as well as numerous candidates elbowing for playing time at the forward spots.
Kelly Krauskopf is leaving her post as the Pacers’ assistant GM to become the president of basketball and business operations for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star relays via a press release from Pacers Sports and Entertainment. Krauskopf was the Fever’s president and GM from the team’s inception in 2000 until 2018. She was then hired by the Pacers and became the first woman in league history to hold an executive basketball management role. “I want to thank (Pacers president) Kevin Pritchard for asking me to join his management staff six years ago. There’s no doubt that experience will serve me well as I enter this next chapter,” she said.
Kaseya Center, the current name of the Heat‘s home arena, has undergone a series of multimillion-dollar facility upgrades, according to Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. The arena upgrades include a new scoreboard, new lighting and audio systems and a new retractable seating system in the lower bowl. The upgrades were made this summer.

Eastern Notes: Atkinson, Cavs, Wizards, Wagner, Hawks, More

May 25th, 2024 at 2:48pm CST by Luke Adams

Discussing the Cavaliers‘ head coaching search this week on an episode of the No Cap Room podcast (YouTube link), Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports described Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson as the candidate who “seems to be the leader in the clubhouse right now.” Atkinson has also been linked to another coaching search this spring, according to Fischer.

“Kenny Atkinson was definitely a name involved in the Wizards‘ search,” Fischer said. “… There was definitely expectation around the league that Kenny’s next job would be one of those more developmental teams on the up-and-up, which in theory Cleveland still kind of is, but there are obvious expectations there now. So that would be a much different circumstance – probably a better circumstance, I would say – for Kenny Atkinson, to shed that ‘I’m a rebuild guy’ label.”

Fischer confirms that James Borrego of the Pelicans and Johnnie Bryant of the Knicks are a couple more assistant coaches who are candidates for the Cavaliers’ job, citing Bryant’s connection to Donovan Mitchell dating back to their time in Utah together.

According to Fischer, former Sacramento head coach Dave Joerger is another candidate who will receive consideration from Cleveland. Joerger was hired by the Bucks as an assistant coach after Doc Rivers joined the team earlier this year.

Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:

Magic forward Franz Wagner won’t soon forget his performance in Orlando’s Game 7 first-round loss to Cleveland (six points on 1-of-15 shooting), but his goal is to turn it into a learning experience rather than beating himself up about it, writes Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel. “That’s going to stick with me all summer,” Wagner said. “Hopefully, I can use it as motivation and fuel that the right way.” As Beede observes, Wagner will be eligible for a rookie scale extension this offseason, and while the Magic will likely look to lock him up, it remains to be seen whether the team is prepared to go up to the max to get something done before the 22-year-old’s fourth NBA season.
In a 2024 draft class considered to lack star power, whichever player is selected with the No. 1 overall pick will benefit from not being asked to single-handedly turn a franchise around. As Marc J. Spears of ESPN pointed out on the Hawks Report podcast (link via Lauren L. Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), the No. 1 pick will be joining a Hawks roster that features more talent than a typical club drafting in that spot. Even if Atlanta trades one of Trae Young and Dejounte Murray this offseason, the team would still have one former All-Star in its backcourt, along with promising 22-year-old Jalen Johnson at forward.
The WNBA’s Board of Governors unanimously voted this week to approve an expansion franchise for Toronto, while the NBA’s Board of Governors voted 29-1 in favor of the move, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Unsurprisingly, as Wojnarowski details, the only opposing vote belonged to the Knicks, who sued the Raptors last season and remain engaged in a legal battle with their Atlantic rivals. Raptors chairman Larry Tanenbaum is spearheading Toronto’s new WNBA franchise.

Latest On NBA’s Media Rights Negotiations

May 22nd, 2024 at 10:16am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA is expected to formalize written contracts this week with Disney (ESPN/ABC), NBC, and Amazon for their media rights, according to Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal, who provides the following tentative details on the three deals:

ESPN/ABC (“A” package): $2.8 billion per year; likely to include NBA Finals, one conference final, weekly prime-time games, the WNBA, and shared international rights.
NBC (“B” package): $2.6 billion per year; likely to include “Basketball Night in America” on Sundays, two prime-time windows per week, conference semifinals, and one conference final.
Amazon (“C” package): $1.8-2 billion per year; likely to include the in-season tournament, the play-in tournament, first-round playoff games, the WNBA, and shared international rights.

The parties are in the process of tweaking their agreements, says Friend, explaining that once the terms are finalized, the networks will take them to their respective boards to have the bids ratified. At that point, the NBA is expected to circle back to longtime television partner Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT Sports) to see if WBD wants to exercise its matching rights on NBC’s offer.

According to Friend, the expectation is that the NBA will argue that TNT doesn’t have the right to simply match NBC’s bid from a dollar-for-dollar perspective, since TNT lacks the over-the-air broadcast infrastructure that NBC can offer. Previous reporting stated that the league would want at least $300MM more from Warner Bros. Discovery for the same package of games that NBC is bidding on.

As Friend details, if Warner Bros. Discovery doesn’t want to lose the NBA and isn’t willing to pay that added cost for the “B” package, the company could take the NBA to court and contest the league’s definition of what constitutes a matching offer. Sources tell the Sports Business Journal that the NBA is preparing its lawyers for a potential inquisition or lawsuit.

Disney was more proactive than WBD during the exclusive negotiating window that ESPN/ABC and TNT Sports were afforded earlier this year, per Friend, increasing its offer to $2.8 billion per year after paying $1.4 billion in its last deal with the NBA.

WBD, meanwhile, believed it would only have to bump its offer from $1.2 billion in the previous media deal to about $1.8-2.1 billion this time around, according to Friend, who says that’s a key reason why the NBA took that package of games to the open marketplace and found a more appealing offer from NBC.

The league’s current media rights deal will expire after the 2024/25 season, with the new agreement taking effect in ’25/26.

Latest On NBA’s Media Rights Negotiations

April 22nd, 2024 at 11:29am CST by Luke Adams

With the exclusive negotiating window for the NBA, ESPN, and TNT Sports set to close at the end of the day on Monday, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic checks in on where things stand for the league and its next media rights deal, with the current agreement set to expire at the end of the 2024/25 season.

As Marchand details, ESPN/ABC and TNT remain “intensely” interested in retaining their NBA rights and may well do so, but the league anticipates reaching deals on at least three separate TV packages – and possibly four – so at least one new partner is expected to enter the mix.

While the league will almost certainly talk to major streamers like Netflix, Apple, and Google/YouTube, the perceived favorite among those streamers is Amazon Prime Video, according to Marchand, who observes that Amazon has had success with an NFL Thursday Night Football package. Amazon is only interested in an NBA deal if it can secure a regular season and postseason package of “high-level” games, sources tell Marchand.

NBC, which was a key NBA partner during the era in which Michael Jordan‘s Bulls won six championships, remains interested in reuniting with the league, Marchand writes. NBC Universal chairman Mark Lazarus was with TNT when it brought the NBA to its network and has close ties with top league officials, per Marchand, who adds that NBC could incorporate its own streaming service (Peacock) into a potential agreement.

Back in 2014, the NBA struck a nine-year, $24 billion agreement with ESPN/ABC and TNT Sports well before their exclusive negotiating window closed, but the negotiations this time around are more complex, given the changing media landscape and the league’s desire to make streaming its principal distribution method, Marchand writes.

Here’s more from The Athletic’s report:

The NBA is seeking contracts of at least 10 years in its next media deal, according to Marchand.
The league is expected to look into the idea of partnering with a company like ESPN, Amazon, Apple, or Google/YouTube (or possibly more than one of them) to offer local games direct to viewers, Marchand says. The model the NBA is considering wouldn’t give those outlets exclusive local rights, but would be intended to give as many fans as possible access to games locally as cable diminishes.
Currently, ABC airs the NBA Finals, while ESPN and TNT show the conference finals. Those companies want to retain those high-end playoff series, but the idea of a streamer like Amazon getting the rights to conference finals or even NBA Finals games at some point in the next decade is a real possibility, says Marchand.
Given the increasing popularity of women’s college basketball stars, led by Caitlin Clark, there’s optimism about the WNBA receiving a significant bump in viewership in the coming years. WNBA media rights will be part of these negotiations, and – as Marchand puts it – the women’s league has “more currency in these negotiations than the last ones by a wide margin.”